Credit: DH illustration
In the beginning of sadhana, attraction to the form is very often necessary to be guided into the formless. This is a question of practical sadhana because one cannot jump to or fix one’s mind on abstract reality, something in thin air, although ultimately, it is the formless that we seek.
On the other hand, if one learns to gather one’s energies into one centre, one form, or one ideal, then at some point, one may reach a stage when one may drop the form.
So, a form, especially an attractive form, is necessary for one to fix one’s mind on one point and discard it when one comes to a certain state. It is like making an image out of clay. Clay has no shape as such. You put the clay into a mould, press it until the image sets, and then break it for the image to emerge.
In section Four, the Kenopanishad describes, through the words of Uma, “the daughter of the Himalayas”, the experience of Brahman. It is not a gradual formation, not a gradual experience, but a sudden flash, like lightning or the blink of an eye.
It is not an experience that is collected in the memory and retained. As the Upanishad says, it is a present experience: "If you understand it now, there is bliss; if you do not understand it now, it is a disastrous loss. So, the Upanishad speaks of the present, not some future date when one can attain it.
The fourth shloka also speaks about Brahman. It says that illumination comes like a flash of lightning, and no one can say when it will come. One must prepare for it, as it can come at a time.
The issue is, Can you catch it when it comes, or will you miss it? Every postponement of trying to find the Supreme Being is a loss because it flashes, and it is gone! One needs to be alert enough to catch it.
From birth to death, thought is a continuous process.
The mind chatters and moves endlessly. It appears that there is hardly any gap between one thought and another. Of course, we cannot find that gap normally, but if you could grasp that junction, you have it in the blink of an eye.
As the Upanishad says, “Thus we have heard from the ancients.”